And The Darkness Comprehended It Not
by nukavictory
Summary: The Lone Wanderer has built up quite a reputation after her deeds in the Capital Wasteland and decides to retire to Point Lookout Light, a light shining in darkness. On the way there, she is joined by a few stowaways - one canine, one a former cave dweller - who convince her that just because she's retired from the wandering life, doesn't mean she has to give up the adventures.
1. Chapter 1

What a regular fool I must have been to believe her when she said she weren't there to cause no trouble or anything. She said she could use a place to keep her things. She said it so nice, I forgot to ask her to get me my Kenny-Bear. Gave a strange lady a home for nothing. And I thought I knew not to trust anyone.

She did get Kenny-Bear for me though, so she wasn't all rotten. And she didn't have the marks neither so I guess it was just as dangerous out there for her as it were for me. And she made it through my traps, so I guessed she was pretty quick on her feet. Really, though, I guess I was lonely.

She never told me her name, not proper-like. Oh sure I asked, but she turned the question on its head and shook the mother-loving life out of it, like she did with everything. Like she did with me.

"What do they call you?" she asked me that time. She had a funny way of talking, she said she came out of one of those Vaults. Everything was short with her. All neat and clean, like she was most of the time. I saw her kill a feral once. She said sorry before she shot it. All nice and sincere. Sorry! Couldn't I believe it then. She was always too polite. Maybe she was too scared to be rude, maybe she just liked to gain your trust before she knifed you in the gut.

Wasn't sure I could trust her yet, but I figured a name was nothing to hold on to so dear. Sure she taught me different since, but I didn't think much of it at the time.

Couldn't just tell her they called me Latchkey Kenny, that was too sad and runny of a story. "Kenny Latchkey," I said instead.

"Kenny Latchkey," she repeated, like maybe she didn't believe me.

"Can't you hear me right? Like it or not that's what I'm called, lady. What about you?" Okay so maybe I was huffing and puffing a little. Like she had a right to make fun, the way she was.

"Well, I suppose that would make me Lady Latchkey."

I was shooting some tin cans then and damn near shot my foot, I was that surprised and if you really want to know, I guess I went kind of red in the face too. Was I ever happy that cave was dark. I didn't know what to think, but I felt sort of happy, to tell truth. And so she wasn't a strange lady anymore, she was a lady, my Lady.

I asked her if she'd ever kilt a man and she said yes. I was nervous about that, on account of I never really kilt a crab-man or nothing, not even one of those dang flies. I never knew a lady could kill but looking at her, I knew.

Lady gave me that radio over there. She'd been gone for near a month when she promised it would only be a week, and all she said was that there were some people who needed helping.

She didn't say what kind. I asked her if she was a no-good goodie two-shoes. Lady laughed sort of sad and said no, she wasn't a good person. But she didn't seem _bad _either. I couldn't figure it out then, and I'm only just beginning to understand it now.

But back then I weren't worried much about anything, not even dying old and alone like Old Man Herzog. I figured when my time came, I'd give a hell of a fight first. I shouldn't have been thinking so hard about that damn old grim reaper because I lost sight of the real one in front of my eyes. Could I been watching closer I would have seen then and there that that Lady would be the death of me.


	2. Chapter 2

So I figured, first, Lady was just another one of those wasters brought over by that shifty guy with the boat. Well I wasn't half wrong, not really. Only it turned out she was a little more than that.

It took a while to make out the song from the static, for starters – that old radio barely broadcasted much of anything afore I set to tinkering with it – and some of the things this Three Dog feller said Lady did sounded downright unpossible. I'd take a hard look at her, I mean real hard, and wonder, could she really have done it? Lady said she been out in the wastes for a while, but she looked too clean, too pink. All right so some of it was the sunburn. I guess those Vaulties really _don't _see much sun, after all.

She showed me a picture of her and her dad when she was a littlun. Real pretty, real sweet smile, made my heart skip a bit but not for why you're thinking. Lady's brownie curls had gone grubby here and there since, and she'd got taller some, but her eyes, her eyes had still had that glint that scared me and a thousand others afore me fearful dead just to see it.

Lady wasn't some nonsense nobody. She was some kind of hero, not like Captain Cosmos, but a hero still, gray she mighta been. She kilt an army of slavers at some kind of paradise that really wasn't, armed only with a wink and a switchblade. She saved some kid from crazy ants what spat fire out of their antenner.

She kept away some mutie things that were tryna take over some big old town or something – what in the hell they were I didn't know, but they didn't sound good by Three Dog's word. And Lady did them all in.

I tried to scare her away by shaking chains and yelling boo. I told her I kilt crab kings for fun. I asked her to play tag.

Lady'd been up against fearsomer things without so much as saying hey. She'd kilt worser than I could even try to imagine. She'd been chased by bullets, lasers, turrets. Okay sure I was a kid then, but – how could I have been so darn kiddy? I turn plenty red thinking about it, even now.

But then I also think, as happy as I was to have someone to play with, she seemed pretty happy too. I shrieked louder, jumped higher, grinned wider, not just because I was glad, but because it made her smile, kind of soft and lopsided, like she couldn't even tell she was doing it. Must have been why I let my guard down, then. Maybe Lady wasn't a good person, but she did good things, and that was good enough for me then.

Doing something for someone else, for nothing much in return – only a fool would do that here. But I never was much the brightest spark in the plug, even after she sent me to live with Haley at his shop.

Did I tell you about that? Too dangerous to live on my own, she said. Could use some training, she said, like she knew better. Another one of her crazy ideas that, I guess, wasn't so crazy after all in the end. Damn near went hoarse protesting, but Lady gave me that look, eyes turned up, lips turned down. I sort of hated her then for pulling the same trick she pulled on everyone else.

Then I did what I always did, I wondered, I hoped maybe she meant it this time. That she meant it, when it was for me. Benefit of the something or other like that. Then I hated myself, a little, always falling for it, always making excuses for her.

I must have known then, just didn't want to admit it to myself. I figured, and I figured right, if I admitted it, then it was real, and out there, and absolutely, completely out of my control.


End file.
